Wishful thinking
by Mrstrentreznor
Summary: Kim just wanted to be noticed... but only by him... Jared.


One of my one shots for the Truly Anon Twi fic contest. 45 photo prompts, I wrote 13 stories. Clearly have major issues... lol

Pairing: Kim/Jared

Rating: T

**Prompt 30 – was a bronzed shot of a couple at sunset. He is standing looking away from her, the sea in the background. She is sitting, twisted to look back at him and her whole face is just beaming.**

Disclaimer:_**the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their Gods.**_

* * *

><p><strong>Wishful thinking<strong>

Kim. She's such a nice girl. That was what people always said. You know Kim, the nice one. She heard them and she wasn't even offended. She knew her limitations. She **was** nice; not pretty, not beautiful or distinctive. She wasn't even very funny or outgoing. She was too shy for that. If someone described her, they would probably say she was plain. She had a wide face, that was mostly cheekbones, with eyes too small to balance them out. Her nose and mouth were both too broad for beauty. Her flat black hair was thin and wispy.

She often looked at herself in the mirror and despaired. But never for very long, she wasn't one for wallowing.

She wanted to be noticed for one reason and one reason only; Jared Cameron.

From the first wish she could remember making, when she blew out her birthday candles or tossed a coin into a wishing well; _that_ had been her wish. Please let Jared Cameron notice me.

She didn't know how to start a conversation with him. She had never shown any interest in any other boy; Jared was **it** for her. No other guy in her world came close to him. Not that any other boys noticed her, either.

The Quileute tribal school was small. He was in all her classes and she always tried to sit somewhere behind him so that she could watch him. She decorated her books with their names together in red hearts, surrounded by flowers. She had had the biggest crush on him for literally years. She hung near him in the corridors and heard him talking to his friends. Nobody noticed her do it. She was just Kim; nobody noticed her. She absorbed every detail of his life, like a sponge. The Jared Cameron fan club of one.

He was ill for a week and no one could say what was wrong with him. She missed him, badly. She agonised about phoning up his house to make sure he was okay. She knew his phone number. She had memorised it years ago and never rung it. She had sat there, with the phone in her hand and she had imagined calling him, but then, she wouldn't know what to say. She would just lock up and freeze, especially if he actually answered it himself. She'd know his voice, of course she would. If his mother answered, she didn't know how to explain who she was to her. So she didn't call. She put the phone back and made another wish.

So she just prayed for his recovery; sent him happy, healthy thoughts. She wished him better.

And it came true.

Monday he was back at school. But he was different. She knew every line of his body and exactly how tall he was. How could he have grown so much in one week? That must have hurt. He was gorgeous before, but now he was mouth-watering. At least, that was the affect he had on her now.

She almost squeaked when she saw him walk down the corridor into school. The sun was behind him and he shone like a god. She had felt weak at the knees. She had leant into the row of lockers and tried to remember how to breathe, before she fell over and really embarrassed herself.

When she had got herself together, she followed him into their English class. His shoulders and his back looked so broad now. She noticed her own hand reaching up as if to brush him and she clutched it back before she made contact. She scuttled to a seat behind him, as per usual. But then he inexplicably moved and sat next to her. She nearly died. He was sitting next to her.

The class started, but she took even less notice than she usually did. She studied him surreptitiously; glancing out the corner of her eyes at him. He looked tired. He had shadows under his beautiful eyes.

And then she had dropped her pen. He moved, a little too quickly, and grabbed it. His muscular hand closed around it and he straightened up to hand it back to her.

Their eyes met.

He had just blinked and stared at her, as she stuttered out a thank you.

They hadn't moved. Their arms were still extended. He placed the pen in her hand and then he brushed the back of his fingers against her forearm. It almost burnt her. She could feel that touch everywhere.

They straightened up slowly and somehow she knew that things had changed. Jared Cameron had noticed her. He had noticed her in the best way possible. She tried to concentrate in class, but her mind was a maelstrom of thoughts and ideas. First and foremost was 'what the hell had just happened?'

At the end of the class, he rose to his feet; the chair screeching noisily as he pushed it back. He winced, as if it hurt him.

She looked worried for him. He noticed that, too. He smiled at her. She felt her heart flip over in her chest.

"What's your name?" he asked her, his voice husky and low.

"K-kim," she stuttered.

"Kim," he repeated. He reached out slowly and brushed her arm with his fingers again. He looked… stunned. She couldn't think why; it was just her. She was just plain, little, nice Kim.

"Kim," he said again, as if her name had suddenly sprouted the hearts and flowers of her secret drawings.

"Yes?" she responded.

"Can I walk you to your next class?"

She blinked. Wow. "My n-next class?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Maths… with you."

He frowned a little. "Really?"

"I'm in _all_ your classes," she expanded.

He smiled again. "Awesome," he said.

They walked next to each other down the corridor. He didn't hold her hand but she had a feeling that he wanted to. She could feel him, so close to her; they inadvertently brushed against each other as they walked. He had adjusted his stride to match hers. He held the door open for her. He pulled her chair out for her. She pinched herself when he wasn't looking. She didn't wake up. This was all happening so fast; she didn't know how to process it.

He sat in the chair next to her; he turned in the chair to face her and stretched out his long legs so that they reached under her desk. She desperately wanted to rub his jean clad leg with her own. She was in a daze.

Maths class passed epically fast. In Science he had to sit with his lab partner, but he kept getting up and coming over to her table to talk to her, until he got groused at by the teacher. He grinned at her and went back to sit down. When the bell rang, he appeared quickly at her side and carried her bag for her. People were starting to notice. She saw a couple of girls elbow each other and make whispered comments that she couldn't hear. Oddly, Jared frowned at them.

He almost shepherded her out the door. He put his arm around her shoulders and she could literally feel her heart skip a beat. She was so little compared to him, now; she fitted neatly under his arm.

She followed in his wake like a leaf in the stream. They did another class and then it was lunchtime. He hit the cafeteria for lunch and piled a crazy amount of food on his tray. He held her arm and tugged her after him occasionally. As if she was going anywhere else?

"Let's sit outside," he suggested. She thought it was freezing cold and windy, but she nodded her agreement.

She sat at the picnic tables set up permanently outdoors and he sat next to her, straddling the bench, after sliding his tray onto the table. He slid in close to her, with his knee behind her back.

It was too much for her labouring heart.

"Are you okay?" he asked, suddenly.

She looked at him. He looked concerned. He was concerned for _her_. She had to ask. She took a deep breath.

"Jared, what is going on?"

He squirmed nervously on the bench. "What do you mean?"

"Me… this… us?" she asked, vaguely.

He ate a burger in two mouthfuls and washed it down with soda. She watched him and waited patiently for his response.

She didn't get one. Eventually, he shrugged. She worked up the courage from somewhere and she touched him. She placed her fingers flat on his arm. He looked down at her hand where it lay on his arm and he made a noise; an odd throat clearing kind of noise, she couldn't describe. She went to snatch her hand back, but he slapped his other hand on top and held it there. She looked at his hand on top of hers and then glanced up to his face.

There was a pause, as they stared at each other. Her hand felt uncomfortably warm.

"Please," she asked. "You've never noticed me… not for years… why now?" She couldn't believe it when those words came out of her mouth. She was terrified that she would ruin this. Not that she was entirely sure what _this_ was.

"But you saw me, didn't you?" he asked.

She swallowed. She nodded.

He smiled at her.

"Always," she said, startled by her own confession.

"Kim?" he asked. "Can I kiss you?"

"Me?" she squeaked.

"Yeah," he breathed. He leaned in closer and closer to her. She could smell him. He smelt really good. He was almost breathing on her. He was still waiting for her answer.

"Ummm… okay," she finally managed to say.

She had never kissed anyone before; not properly, you know. Family pecks on the cheeks and once she had brushed lips with a guy at a dance, but that was all before Jared.

He leaned in and his lips just touched hers. She almost gasped. She would have, except she couldn't make her lips leave his. He pulled back eventually and they both took a gasping breath and then crashed right back into each other. His arms were around her and he lifted her and suddenly she was in his lap and she couldn't get any closer to him. At least not without taking her clothes off.

She was possessed by the sudden need to take her clothes off, but she'd have to let go of him to do that and she didn't want to.

When he finally stopped kissing her, he held her face in his hands and he looked at her as if she was the most precious thing in the whole world to him. "Kim," he said again, in that voice; the one that was brimming with adoration. "Your skin is like silk. He traced her lips with a finger. "Did you know that your lips are a perfect double curve?" He kissed her again, just a gentle brush of lips now. "When you look down, your eyelashes are so long that they brush your cheek."

She couldn't answer him. She just blushed. She had never noticed any of that, when she looked at herself in the mirror.

He rearranged her on his lap and ate the rest of the food on his tray. He kept offering her little titbits, but she couldn't have eaten anything; her stomach was still a roiling mess of nerves. She snuggled in against him. He was so warm.

"What happened last week?" she asked.

He looked at her again. He cuddled her in against him and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "We'll go down to the beach after school and I will tell you everything," he promised. She nodded. She somehow knew he was telling the truth; that if he promised her something, it would happen.

He held her hand and walked her through the rest of the day. She was on a cloud.

They walked down to the beach together and, true to his word, he told her all about the wolf pack and what had happened to him in the last week. The wind had picked up and she put her cardigan on. He told her about imprinting and that it was the Quileute wolf pack equivalent to love at first sight.

And that was that.

She believed him.

He rose to his feet and walked a little away from her. He called out to Sam Uley who had run onto the beach. He had already told her that Sam was his pack leader. He was the second; Sam's Beta and she was so proud of him.

Kim sat, her hair blowing in the wind and she looked at the love of her life. The sun was low in the sky and all she could see was him; infused in a bronze glow. She utterly adored him. She could not stop her face showing that adoration and she didn't care. She would be happy for the rest of her life because her secret wish had come true.

Jared Cameron had taken notice of her.

FF_2154210_713761343 - 7/03/2012 5:54:00 PM


End file.
